Elliott Page is not playing Achilles in Christopher Nolan’s ”The Odyssey” after all. New reporting points to a different role entirely: Sinon, the Greek warrior whose deception is tied to the fall of Troy and one of mythology’s most famous wooden horses. That makes Page part of the movie’s most explosive backstory, even if the character is absent from Homer’s original poem.
The shift is a smart one. Achilles would have been the obvious fan-service pick; Sinon is the sharper choice if Nolan wants to lean into betrayal, spectacle, and the kind of myth that can power a three-hour blockbuster without feeling like a museum tour.
Why Sinon changes the casting story
Sinon is a relatively late addition to the classical tradition, with his story told more fully by Virgil in ”The Aeneid” and later authors. In the myth, he poses as a defector and persuades the Trojans to bring the wooden horse inside the city walls, a move that helps decide the ten-year war.
That gives Page a role with real narrative weight, even without the instant name recognition of Achilles or Odysseus. It also fits Nolan’s taste for characters who matter more through consequence than screen time.
What we know about ”The Odyssey”
- Budget: $250 million
- Camera system: IMAX
- Runtime: 2 hours 52 minutes
- Rating: R
- World premiere: 17 July 2026
Those numbers suggest Nolan is still building on the post-”Oppenheimer” model: big budget, premium-format visuals, and a runtime long enough to make your popcorn nervous. The R rating also hints that this will not be a polite classroom retelling of classical literature.
A Trojan horse role in a very expensive epic
If the casting is accurate, Page’s character could end up being one of the film’s most memorable pieces of misdirection. Nolan has a habit of turning supporting parts into pressure points, and Sinon is exactly the sort of mythological wildcard that can make a giant ensemble feel dangerous instead of decorative.
The remaining question is how much screen time Nolan gives the Trojan sequence inside a story branded as ”The Odyssey.” If he leans into it, the movie may spend as much energy on the war that preceded Odysseus’s journey as on the voyage itself.